Changement technique et structure professionnelle locale en agriculture

Abstract

The process of technical change may be observed and analysed in other terms than those imposed by the « concentric » visions of society, according to which knowledge spreads from producing centres towards the peripheral multitude of executants. The technical transformations are neither the ordinary result of spreading effects, nor the ordinary result of technical or technico-economical logics, or of macro-sociological connections. They are also the result of social interactions, in keeping with systems of relatively lasting relations. The adoption of a new technic, introduced by the farmers in the existing system is therefore a process of negotiation and not only a transfer and an acquisition. We show, from empirical studies realised in French villages, that there is a correlation between the morphological caracteristics of the social systems of dialogue and interinfluence on one hand, described with the means of social network analysis, and, on the other hand, the modalities according to which the ideas and the ways of doing remain, change, adjust, unify or vary within a group.